Motivations of overweight adolescents participating in a multidisciplinary health promotion program

Abstract

Introduction: the perception of individuals about their own health is a strong indicator of their real state, as well as their behaviors related to the prognosis in case of presence of pathologies, besides being proportional to their motivations to acquire healthy habits. Objective: to describe the motivations of overweight adolescents when participating in a multidisciplinary health promotion program and their perceptions about habits related to physical and emotional well-being. Methods: this is a qualitative study, using the Bardin content analysis technique. The tool used for data collection was the semi-structured interview, analyzed with the help of the software QSR NVivo 11 through grouping of the speech into clusters. These in turn were evaluated in three categories: (1) motivation; (2) food; and (3) physical exercise. Results: the average age of the participants was 13.8 ± 2.4, with an average body mass index of 31.8 ± 8.5 kg/m2. Regarding family income, 41.66% had monthly income of 3 to 6 minimum wages. Regarding the educational level of parents, 70.83% of mothers had completed higher education, while 29.16% had completed high school. According to the respondents’ answers, the greatest motivation to participate in a multidisciplinary obesity treatment program was weight loss. In category 2, it was observed that adolescents associated the act of eating with feelings such as anxiety and nervousness. In category 3, the impact of the pandemic was found under the modalities of physical exercise practiced. Conclusion: the results prove the importance of understanding the perception of adolescents about their own health and related habits, in order to elaborate effective strategies for health promotion and consequent improvement of the quality of life of these individuals.